Sebastian Vettel stormed to his 33rd career pole position to equal the tally of the greats Alain Prost and Jim Clark. Vettel was simply too good for the rest of the field who were largely separated by less than a second. Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado will line up 2nd and 3rd but Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber all failed to impress.
Qualifying 1
The news came through before qualifying that Timo Glock would take no part in the session because of illness. He will also take no part in this afternoon’s race. The other 23 cars took to the track and it immediately became clear that Mark Webber was off the pace. His running in FP3 had been curtailed by issues with the car and, while he may have been able to get away with that last season, he was punished by the tight nature of racing in the 2012 season. Webber switched to the soft tyres but to no avail and was marooned down in 19th place. Just in front of him will line up Jean-Eric Vergne who thought he’d done enough to make it into Q2 before Heikki Kovalainen delighted the Caterham team with a brilliant lap at the death of the session to take P17.
Eliminated:
- 18th Jean-Eric Vergne (Scuderia Toro Rosso) 1:40.203
- 19th Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) 1:40.395
- 20th Vitaly Petrov (Caterham F1) 1:40.457
- 21st Pedro de la Rosa (HRT F1) 1:42.171
- 22nd Narain Karthiekeyan (HRT F1) 1:42.527
Qualifying 2
With the Force India’s looking quick all weekend it became apparent that one of the more established teams would be eliminated in Q2. Unfortunately for Ferrari, it was them who would be eliminated. The revised F2012 still wasn’t up to the pace around a stop-start circuit like the one in Valencia and Fernando Alonso will start 11th with Massa in 13th. Michael Schumacher couldn’t produce a lap like in Monaco and will start 12th. Sergio Perez will have to produce another stunningly controlled performance to replicate his podium finish in Canada as he will start 15th. Heikki Kovalainen impressed again as he outqualified the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo. The fastest time in Q2 down to 13th place was separated by just two tenths of a second.
Eliminated:
- 11th Fernando Alonso (Scuderia Ferrari) 1:38.707
- 12th Michael Schumacher (Mercedes AMG Petronas) 1:38.770
- 13th Felipe Massa (Scuderia Ferrari) 1:38.780
- 14th Bruno Senna (Williams F1) 1:39.207
- 15th Sergio Perez (Sauber F1) 1:39.358
- 16th Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham F1) 1:40.295
- 17th Daniel Ricciardo (Scuderia Toro Rosso) 1:40.358
Qualifying 3
With the field packed so tightly, anyone of the top 10 could have taken pole. For a while it seemed as though the Force India’s might just do it with Paul di Resta absolutely flying before locking up into the final corner and ruining the lap. Hulkenberg then slotted himself into P1 before Pastor Maldonado came along and took the honours off him. It was Hamilton’s turn next to take over at the top with a great lap as Button again couldn’t get near his team-mate. Sebastian Vettel has looked mighty all weekend and was the favourite for pole. In his one run, he destroyed the competition; going some three tenths faster than anyone else when the rest of the top 10 were by just half a second themselves.
Top 10:
- Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) 1:38.086
- Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) 1:38.410
- Pastor Maldonado (Williams F1) 1:38.475
- Romain Grosjean (Lotus F1) 1:38.505
- Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus F1) 1:38.513
- Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG Petronas) 1:38.623
- Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber F1) 1:38.741
- Nico Hulkenberg (Sahara Force India) 1:38.752
- Jenson Button (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) 1:38.801
- Paul di Resta (Sahara Force India) 1:38.992
With this track being perhaps the most boring of the season (although Korea might argue with that) overtaking will be at a premium this afternoon. Vettel seems to have the measure of the field and will be difficult to beat while Grosjean looks the most likely to be another different winner this season. Hopefully the Pirelli tyres will inject some excitement into an event which, in my opinion, shouldn’t be on the calendar. My prediction is thus:
- Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
- Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes)
- Romain Grosjean (Lotus F1)